Sunday 26 June 2016

TANZANIA: Tanzania Tourist Board Goes eMarketing

The Tanzania Tourist Board (TTB) in its efforts to aggressively market Destination Tanzania globally has embarked into a global e-marketing campaign by developing a modern destination online tourism portal concurrently with the establishment of an Official Tanzania Tourism App.

The Tanzania Online Tourism Destination portal (www.tanzaniatourism.com) is the tool that will not be only used for information dissemination but also allows bookings and payments to be performed online.

It is specifically meant for supporting all Tanzania tourism firms especially SMEs both in rural and urban areas to increase their earnings, conduct their business more easily, give them more visibility, increase their company sales and profitability and contribute immensely to poverty alleviation and the national economy.

Speaking during a press conference held at TTB headquarters today, the Acting Director of Marketing Mr Philp Chitaunga said that the use e-marketing in this era of advancement in technology is inevitable and it is on increase all over the world.

He further noted that the tourism industry is highly dependent on constant, massive flows of information and the success of sales and production depends on a considerable extent on the quality of information.

“Our Portal will save as a vehicle for tourism information dissemination since it contains much important information regarding Tanzania as a unique destination in the world and yet one can even make online payment for the service he or she wants when will be visiting the country” added Mr. Chitaunga.

The tourism industry is highly dependent on constant, massive flows of information and the success of sales and production depends to a considerable extent on the quality of information.

Most of the tourism agencies in Tanzania use partner agencies, located abroad in the source markets for access to tourist markets. Because of the nature of their operations, and the fact that their services cannot be booked and paid online, all bookings are done directly through their partners in the source markets.

This causes revenue leakages and creates more benefit to foreign investors rather than our local tourism agencies and entrepreneurs.

Therefore the portal will serve as a tool for directly accessing tourist markets as well as online payment in which will allow tourists to contact the service providers a move which will avoid leakages of revenue and enable local tourism agents to benefit more.

As for the Tanzania tourism official App Mr Chitaunga said that the App is called Tanzania Tourism and that has come at a time when there are many efforts made by private companies’ and individuals’ to establish tourism Apps such as Tanzania Safari Guide; Tanzania Travel Safari; Destination Tanzania, Tanzania Travel and Tourism etc but this one is developed by the Tanzania Tourist Board and now serves as the Official Tanzania Tourism App.

“The official App Tanzania Tourism, as it for the Portal contains detailed information on various tourist destinations in Tanzania. Among it gives an overview of what Tanzania can offer as unique tourist destination in Africa, things to do, accommodation, and how to plan your trip” he pointed out.

He discloses that the App will later have provision for the potential visitors to book and make online payment as it is the case for portal.

The official App which is available at Google play store and is accessible to Android mobile phones users worldwide and will soon be found in AppStore (iPhone).

This adds on to a number of marketing and promotional tools and used by the Tanzania Tourist Board in promoting destination Tanzania globally.

The introduction of this international tourism e-marketing campaign is expected to bring about more positive impact in the development of the tourism industry in the country.

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